


A Chiaroscuro Valentine

by Snowflake88



Series: Chiaroscuro [2]
Category: Code:Realize～創世の姫君～ | Code:Realize ~Sousei no Himegimi~ | Code:Realize ~Guardian of Rebirth~ (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Surprise Character Appearance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29463480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowflake88/pseuds/Snowflake88
Summary: (Working title, to be changed if I think of something better!)In pandemic times, Victor has missed two important occasions and it is up to Impey to save the day... or is it?A fic written in honour of Van's birthday and Valentine's Day. February is a special month, isn't it?
Relationships: Victor Frankenstein/Abraham Van Helsing (Code: Realize)
Series: Chiaroscuro [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2164113
Kudos: 3





	A Chiaroscuro Valentine

**Author's Note:**

> The boys are older in this fic - Victor is 18, Impey is 19 and Van has just turned 21. Set sometime after the projected end of the Chiaroscuro fic.

St Valentine’s Day had always been Impey’s favourite time of the year – the world blanketed by velvety starry skies, sweet with the scent of roses and sparkling under candlelight reflected in the beautiful eyes of that special someone with whom he could cuddle the frosty February night away with… if only he actually  _ had _ that special someone, that is. As it was, the world’s most genius engineer had been friend-zoned by most of the girls that surrounded him, though he remained ever optimistic that his special someone was probably somewhere out there waiting to meet him in the future. As it was, he only had to look to his own foster brother’s example to see that true love was indeed possible!

This year though, things were different. A pandemic was raging, so the streetlights shed their warm lights over empty park benches while lovers squirrelled themselves within their own warm nests. At least the flower business was still thriving, at least for this time of the year – how they would survive thereafter was anybody’s guess. Impey’s own dads had opted to stay in, and while Impey usually didn’t mind their company, he couldn’t help but feel like the world’s largest lightbulb on this night of all nights, and Victor wasn’t around to share the wattage since he had been shuttled away to the frontlines to help in the fight against the pandemic.

Well, technically, Victor wouldn’t have been around either if Van had been in town. As it was, given that Victor had essentially been shut away, Van hadn’t even bothered to make the trip from Surrey to London, so Impey was pretty much on his own with his headphones blasting his favourite songs just so he could drown out any accidental noises he didn’t want to hear, but his ears were beginning to ache and were still ringing when he cautiously removed the headgear. Well, he could at least send the lovebirds a message each just to show them he cared, on the lovey-est of all the days in the year. Humming noncommittally, he tapped away on the screen.

**Yo, Vanny, shot any hearts lately? Happy Vday to your lonesome self.**

He expected that Van would take a few minutes, if not hours to reply, so he was genuinely surprised to feel his mobile vibrate with an incoming message almost immediately.

_ I’d shoot yours, just to watch you bleed. _

**Oho, trying to make Vicky jealous eh? So, how have you two been spending your Vday? And btw, happy belated birthday – I just remembered moments ago. Sorry, not sorry.**

With much anticipation, he waited for Van’s reply. He always enjoyed goading the hot-tempered blond, and despite Van’s frequent threats to shoot him on sight, he knew the other valued their odd friendship, especially since Victor was such an important part of both their lives. When his mobile didn’t buzz after some time though, he grew genuinely concerned.

**Van?**

It took a few more seconds, but then a reply came in.

_ I haven’t heard from him since mid-January. _

It took quite a bit to shock Impey, but this was one of the rare occasions that he felt really nonplussed. Sure, Victor was the type to get totally absorbed in his work, but to neglect Van for over a month was so unlike him that Impey felt he had to do something. His fingers flew over the screen.

**I’m sure he’s just busy! He’ll make it up to you, I’m sure.**

There was another long pause before Van’s reply came in.

_ Yeah. Thanks for your concern. _

Even Impey didn’t know how to reply to that one, beyond sending a lame “ **Anytime, buddy** ” response. It wasn’t like there would be any point to Van responding to that one either, so the wheels in his head began turning since the problem obviously lay with Victor. It was time to give his wayward foster brother a call, so he selected Victor’s icon from his speed dial and waited. It rang briefly, then he heard Victor’s voice message.

“Hi, I am sorry I am not able to take your call right now. Please leave a message, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

Uncontactable too? Impey frowned. He cancelled the call, and his fingers hovered over the second number in Victor’s profile. It was his work number, and Impey was reluctant to contact him through it but he didn’t see any other option. Had Van even tried that line? Throwing caution to the wind, Impey made the call. It wasn’t long before he heard Victor’s familiar accent over the line.

“Hullo, it’s Frankenstein. How may I help you?” The voice over the phone sounded unusually fatigued.

“Vicky, it’s me,” Impey said, keeping his tone carefully neutral. “You haven’t called Van recently, have you?”

“Van? Why? Did something happen to him?”

Yes, he’s turned 21 already, and you didn’t realise, you right idiot! Impey wanted to shout. Victor, he knew by now, responded best to the soft approach. “Victor, what date is it today?”

“Date?” Victor echoed. There was the sound of fumbling and riffling in the background. “Uh… oh wow, it’s already February the 14 th ?”

“Yes… and?”

“And…?”

It was no good. Victor needed to be hit over the head with the hard truth. His brilliant foster brother could be most oblivious at times.

“Vicky, it’s Valentine’s Day. Van’s birthday was just a few days ago too. You haven’t wished him yet, have you?”

There was a pregnant pause, and then Victor all but wailed so loudly that Impey had to hold his phone away from his abused ear. “I TOTALLY LOST TRACK! Oh my God, Impey! What should I do now?”

“Breathe, Victor! Look, Van’s upset, but I’m sure he’ll appreciate a call from you today and at least an explanation of things from your end. I’ll figure something out here, alright? But CALL HIM, damn it.”

“Okay,” Victor sounded like he was about to cry.

“Trust me. I’ll work something out,” Impey promised. His mind was already beginning to churn with ideas and he glanced at the clock on his bedroom wall. 9.30pm – it was late, but not too late, was it? “Look, just call him. Leave the rest to me, alright?”

***

Victor wanted nothing more than to bury himself into the ground and live there forever. Of all things, and of all months, he had managed to forget both Valentine’s Day AND Van’s birthday all at once. He checked his personal mobile phone and wanted to bury himself all over again – there were at least 300 unread messages and 20 missed calls in total since the day he had chucked it into his work locker with the charging cable plugged into a power bank, the majority of which were from Van. He had promised himself ages ago that he would respond to the various messages once he could spare the time to, but then work had just overwhelmed him and he never got around to it. Before he knew it, the hours blended into days and the days into weeks, and now he had neglected the one person in the world who mattered the most to him. However, there was no running away - it was time to face the consequences. His finger hovered above Van’s redlit number for only a moment before he put the phone to his ear.

***

Van stared uncomprehendingly at his buzzing mobile for a while, letting it ring for a while more as Victor’s image popped up on his screen. Eventually, he gathered his wits enough to answer it.

“Victor.”

“Van! Oh my god, I am so sorry. Uh, happy belated birthday and happy Valentine’s Day…” his boyfriend’s voice trailed off.

“It’s been a while since you returned my calls. I was beginning to think that you didn’t care anymore,” Van couldn’t keep the frostiness from entering his voice.

“No! Oh God, please… I’m so sorry, Van. I know there’s no excuse… I just lost track of time and I didn’t even realise it was already February. I’m so sorry…” Victor was beginning to sound like a broken record. “I’m really sad I missed your birthday.”

“And yet you never miss your deadlines.”

“I don’t know why, but the dates just didn’t register. It’s just the way my mind works sometimes. I know I’m awful, Van. I didn’t mean to miss it, I swear,” Victor was all but sobbing over the line. “I’m just so tired… I’m really sorry, Van, and I just wanted to call you now that I’ve realized how late I’ve been. You can hang up on me if you want, I know I deserve it…”

Over the line, the sound of sniffles and choked tears reached his ears, and Van sighed in spite of his sore pride. “Victor. Don’t. I’m not going to hang up… I am mad that you didn’t call earlier… but it’s good to hear your voice again.” The anger that had been simmering within him since late January subsided, and more than anything else, he hated the distance that separated them even more now that they were stuck where they were. “Let’s start over, shall we? How are things over there?”

There was a loud exhalation. “Crazy… I really meant to get in touch, Van, but I couldn’t find that time and space to do so. I kid you not, I haven’t seen daylight since stepping into the building.”

“You know we appreciate you updating us whenever you can, especially since you’re on the frontlines… we need to be the first to know if… you know, knock on wood, anything should happen.”

“I promise you, I will, from now on… I know it sounds like I’m making excuses, but time really stops here. We count our time in hours, not days, and I didn’t even realise it’s been over a month since we last spoke to each other because my phone’s been in the locker and I haven’t looked at it until today. I guess I thought that if there was anything really urgent I’d be called on my work phone, and well… Impey did so just a little earlier.”

Impey, eh? Van had considered calling Victor at his work number before, but he knew the scientist was in the midst of vaccine testing and had been reluctant to disturb him then, rationalizing that Victor would call him back soon enough. He just hadn’t expected that it would take quite THIS long, and even though he remembered this option was still available to him on his 21 st birthday which had come and gone, anger and his wounded pride had taken over by then.

More concerning at the moment though was the exhaustion that he heard in his boyfriend’s voice. “Have you been sleeping?”

“I try to sleep when I can but it never feels like it’s enough. I think I had a three-hour nap sometime yesterday.”

“You think? How long till your next shift?”

“Four hours... normally it’s eight for every thirty hours we pull, but I’m covering a colleague.”

Truly, he could see how his boyfriend could have lost track of time given these circumstances, and it was really worrying how little rest he was getting. “Get some sleep then. We’ll talk again when you’re properly rested.”

“Van?” Victor’s voice was small and unsure. “Are you still mad at me?”

“No,” Van replied. “But you really should be sleeping now, so I’m going to hang up. I’m not mad anymore, alright? And thank you for letting me hear your voice today.”

“I missed your birthday and now it’s Valentine’s Day… I’m sorry I can’t be with you.”

“Yeah… me too. We’ll see each other again when this madness is over, alright? Go to sleep.”

“Goodnight, Van… I love you.”

“Love you too.”

***

Impey had to thank whatever gods there were out there who put it into the heads of florists to remain open just a little longer on Valentine’s Day – after all, there were bound to be lots of last-minute requests from desperate men, right? He had done a quick online search and made a beeline for the nearest florist that was still available to him.

“Hey! We’re about to close!” the petite blonde girl behind the counter protested as he shoved the door open, causing the sleigh bells attached to the handle to jingle most obnoxiously.

“Please! It’s an emergency, alright? Besides, it’s a quick one – I just need a bunch of roses to be sent over to Surrey before midnight.”

The girl looked at him as if he had grown two heads. “Hey mister. We’re in downtown London and there isn’t anyone who’s going to deliver roses to Surrey by today. Besides, we’re out of roses.”

“No roses and no deliveries?” Impey was aghast. “What about branch shops?”

The girl put her hands on her hips. “We’re a small business, mister. My dad’s been running this shop and only this shop since I was this tall,” she placed a hand beneath her waist, “and we haven’t the money to open up a branch two hours away by train, alright? Take your business elsewhere. I’m closing up.”

“Wait! Look, I’m a paying customer. You can’t just shut me out.” Impey looked desperately around the shop. “Uh, aren’t there any other flowers that represent love or something? Like roses can’t be the only flowers for February, right?” He thought fast. Maybe it didn’t need to reach Surrey by midnight. Van could still wait a bit. “And a next-day delivery should be fine! I’ll pay double, okay?”

The blonde pursed her lips. “Rather desperate, aren’t you? I can tell that you won’t leave until you get something today,” she sighed. Just her luck to encounter one of these types, right after she had nicely finished tallying up the accounts too. “Alright, tell me what you need.”

***

The next morning, Van Helsing was quite bewildered to say the least to be the recipient of a large bouquet of violets and primroses. The flowers of February, read the card it came with, from Gordon’s Flowers, with violets to signify watchfulness, loyalty and faithfulness, and primroses to mean that someone couldn’t live without him.

What was even more jarring was the fact that the apparent giver was “A tall, redhaired Cupid, on behalf of his bumbling friend Vicky.”

Van Helsing put the bouquet and the card down. He felt a headache coming on, and began packing his gear for the rifle range.

He felt the need to shoot something to get it out of his system.

***

By the end of February, the vaccine trials were over, and Victor could finally return home to his family. He stepped out into the sunshine, blinking at its brightness, and texted Van to let him know that he would visit him in Surrey once his stay-home notice had been served. Then he boarded the company shuttle which was to send him back to the Barbicanes’ apartment, feeling like he was ready to crash for the next two weeks just so he could make up for all the sleep he had lost.

It had been a draining period – trial after trial, shift after shift, check after check, but he was glad that he wasn’t among the group that was taking care of the patients who had fallen victim to the pandemic, for they had it way worse than he did. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be with the patients who had been isolated from their loved ones, unable to reunite with them even on their deathbeds, but for a texture-less screen that could never mimic the touch of a human hand. What a cruel disease this was, leaving the patients drowning on dry ground and denying them the simple comfort of another’s warmth. He was glad for the opportunity he had to contribute in the fight against the disease, but being on the frontlines had indeed taken so much out of him.

He had become all the more aware of the need to hold his loved ones close – Van, his found family… and maybe, just maybe, he should reach out to his family in Switzerland once again. He hadn’t quite found the courage yet to tell them of his relationship with Van, but in the light of what he had experienced, some things weren’t worth losing without a hard fight. His fingers hovered over his family’s group chat, which he usually replied to with brief updates about his progress in his studies, and he decided that it was time to contact his parents on a more personal basis.

**_Hi mum… may I call you tonight? I’ve something really important to tell you._ **

It took a moment, but a reply soon arrived.

Of course, my son. After eight, is that alright?

Formal, but loving. It had always been the way of his parents.

**_Yes_ ** , he typed and sent, then paused. It seemed inadequate, somehow, to just end it like that.

**_I’m done with the trials now, and I want to tell you all that I love you all very, very much._ **

It was unusual to be so expressive with his family, but a reply came after a bit.

We love you very, very much too. Is anything the matter?

He blinked back tears.

**_It’s too much to put into words. Let’s talk over the phone tonight._ **

***

“Vicky!” Impey would have flung himself all over Victor if the latter hadn’t backed away immediately.

“No, Impey! Let me shower and change out of these clothes first.” Victor’s eyes were wide behind the surgical mask he was wearing – meagre protection considering that he had been in a full hazmat suit for the past month and a half.

“Ah, right. Sure, go ahead,” Impey replied, giving his foster brother a wide berth. All this social distancing was especially hard for a tactile person like him. “Oh, a letter came for you! I think it’s from Van.” Impey waggled his eyebrows. “I left it on your desk.”

“Thanks, Impey,” Victor said, heading for his room, before turning around again. “Really, for everything.”

“Anytime, buddy,” smiled the redhead.

Once safely ensconced within his room, Victor put his bags down and picked up the aforementioned letter. Opening the envelope, he was surprised when a separate piece of paper fluttered down to the floor, and picked it up to examine it. It was roughly heart-shaped, with jagged, rounded edges in parts, with a strangely familiar concentric pattern. Quizzically, he scanned the letter that had accompanied it, and then felt his lips curving helplessly at what he read.

_ I guess this would do for a make-up Valentine’s gift _ , read the letter.  _ It was hard to shoot the edges straight, but you may keep the heart bit because you’ll always have mine. I’ll hold on to the other half because we’re two pieces of a whole. Just remember that you complete me, Victor. _

And you complete me, Van, thought Victor, as he kissed the jagged-edged heart before setting it down. He would hold on to it while making his confession to his parents later that night.

***

“Going out, Impey?” asked Jules.

“Well… yeah. Maybe this time I can actually make it a date,” Impey seemed rather bashful.

“Well now, aren’t you the lucky one this time,” smiled his father kindly. “And who’s the fool who fell for you?”

“Da! That’s so mean. Your son is a genius engineer, you know. I’m capable of romancing any girl off her feet.”

“Well, you’ve got me curious anyway. What’s her name, and how did you meet?”

“Her name’s Shirley, and she’s a florist who helped me out during Valentine’s.”

“Really! Well, if it works out, bring her home someday to meet us.”

“I’ll take it nice and slow, Da. No scaring her off.”

“Get out.”

“Love you too, Da.”

“Leave!”

***

_ So Stupid Cupid, did things work out for your idiot friend? _

**Yup, they made up and are back to lovey-doveyness thanks to your truly!**

_ Well colour me surprised. There’s no next time, by the way. We only agreed to deliver that bouquet of yours because you were willing to pay triple the rates. _

**I owe you my life, Shirley Gordon. And thank you for giving me your number. May I date you?**

_ Not in a million years. You’re welcome to buy flowers again from our shop though. _

**I will, I promise. Can’t I buy you coffee or something to thank you properly then?**

_ I don’t drink coffee. _

**Tea then? Just a cup!**

_ No spiking it! _

**That never even crossed my mind! Hey wait… is that a yes?**

_ It’s a “we’ll see.” _

**Well then, see you soon, Shirley Gordon.**

Smiling, Impey Barbicane scrolled through his message thread. He could feel it in his bones. This was a most special someone that he had met on the most special of days. He was going to purchase a single red rose from Gordon’s Flowers, and gift it to the florist who had captured his heart. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth. Still, he was Impey Barbicane, and he was going to smoothen that course no matter what it took!

The streetlights cast warm glows along the cobbled streets, and the rows of shops shone invitingly in the distance. The chill in the air was subsiding, and Impey was feeling optimistic about the times to come.

This year might not have been a most romantic of Valentines, but he was sure that the ones in the near future would be filled with roses and sparkling candlelight.

And the world would be beautiful and whole once again, just the way it was supposed to be.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also an indirect tribute to all those working on the frontlines in our pandemic times. Stay safe, everyone.
> 
> I created a Discord server for the Van/Fran ship; but there are channels available to discuss general Code: Realize stuff too. Come on board at https://discord.gg/ZjdXTtw


End file.
